Word Of The Day

recherche'

Merriam Webster

Pronunciation: r&-"sher-'shA, -'sher-"
Function: adjective
Etymology: French, from past participle of rechercher to seek out, from Middle French recherchier
Date: 1722
1 a:EXQUISITE, CHOICE b:EXOTIC, RARE
2: excessively refined : AFFECTED
3: PRETENTIOUS OVERBLOWN


Cambridge Dictionary

recherché
adjective
FORMAL
unusual and not generally known about, or chosen or planned with extreme care.

He writes with a great command of detail on the most recherché topics.
The restaurant prides itself on its recherché menu.

All Words

1. Sought out with care; choice. Hence: of rare quality, elegance, or attractiveness; peculiar and refined in kind.

Main Entry: AARDVARK
Pronunciation: 'ärd-"värk

Function: noun
Etymology: obsolete Afrikaans (now erdvark), from Afrikaans aard earth + vark pig
Date: 1827

: a large burrowing nocturnal ungulate mammal (Orycteropus afer) of sub-Saharan Africa that has a long snout, extensile tongue, powerful claws, large ears, and heavy tail and feeds especially on termites and ants

aardvark n

1) AARDVARK a million miles to put 26 animal puns in alphabetical order. I'd BADGER you and I'd keep CARPING on the subject, until I have no i-DEERs left. I'd have no EGRETs, however, as I FERRET out more animal puns. If necessary, I'd even GOPHER broke. Some may say it's a HARE-brained attempt; but, IGUANA tell you, I'm no JACKASS -- and I KID you not. I'm not doing this for a LARK (although maybe just a MITE). So don't NAG me. In fact, you OTTER try to PARROT me. But don't QUAIL from the challenge. After all, you don't have to be a RACCOON-teur. So just SALMON up some courage, before you take a TERN for the worse. Don't be afraid of people saying to you, "UNICORNiest person I know." Stop crying and VIPER nose. Then say, "WALLABY a son-of-a-gun," and start singing, "Zip-a-dee doo-dah, XIPHIIDAE ay." Soon you'll be a YAK-of-all-trades, and can put all of these animal puns in a book called "Who's ZOO." 2) Strenuous labor.

Rubicon
Rubicon (ROO-bi-kon) noun

A point of no return, one where an action taken commits a person irrevocably.

[Contrary to popular belief, Caesar salad is not named after Julius Caesar. But today's term does have a connection to him. In 49 BCE, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, a small river that formed the boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy. As he crossed the river into Italy, he exclaimed "iacta alea est" (the die is cast) knowing well that his action signified a declaration of war with Pompey. Today when an action marks a situation where there is no going back, we say the Rubicon has been crossed.]

"The age-old Labour debate between universal and means-tested social benefits is being decisively resolved in favour of means-testing. Tony Blair's government has indeed crossed the Rubicon." The Universal Means Test; The Economist (London); Mar 6, 1999.

"Why should one not say, for example, that the defendants in Boyle 'crossed the Rubicon' and were thus guilty of attempted burglary when they attacked the door of the house which they intended to burgle ..." R.A. Duff; Criminal Attempts; Oxford University; 1996.
(Full-text on Questia)

osculation \os-kyuh-LAY-shuhn\, noun:
The act of kissing; also: a kiss.

He had engaged in nervous osculation with all three of Lord Flamborough's daughters.
--Thomas Sutcliffe, "The art of seduction, the skill of the tackle," Independent, June 13, 1994

Their incessant onstage osculations during her last concert tour seemed to offer public proof of their passion.
--"The Big Boom in Breakups," People, November 13, 1995

Osculation comes from osculatio, "a kissing," from osculari, "to kiss," from osculum, "a little mouth, a kiss," diminutive of os, "mouth."

A.Word.A.Day- - fin de siecle
fin de siecle (fahn duh see-EH-kluh) adjective
also fin-de-siecle

Of or pertaining to the end of the nineteenth century, and its climate of sophisticated world-weariness, self-doubt, etc.

[From French, literally, the end of the century.]

"She (Katherine Clark) uses motifs from Chinese porcelain and from the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, who made the peacock the height of fin de siecle fashion a century ago." Suzy Menkes, Homage to the Glories of the Peacock, The International Herald Tribune (France), Dec 15, 1998.

"In these fin-de-siecle circumstances, it is perhaps surprising there is not more sign of millenarian panic." Harbingers of Doom, The Independent (London), Apr 14, 1998.


from Cambridge International Dictionary of English

fin-de-siècle
adjective

relating to the end of a century, esp. the 1890s, and suggesting an unusual and exciting period or a period of low moral standards esp. as shown in art.

The novel begins with an evocative description of fin-de-siècle Paris (=Paris in the 1890s).
A fin-de-siècle feel has crept into fashion recently.


ArtLex Lexicon of Visual Art Terminology

fin de siècle - French for "end of the century." During the twentieth century, this referred to the art of the 1890s -- especially the art of aestheticism and Art Nouveau -- which is sometimes known as "decadent art." An artist who epitomizes this period is Aubrey Beardsley (English, 1872-1898).

When used in art criticism fin de siècle often connotes the idea of a style or movement on the decline. As the end of the twentieth century drew near, this term has been used increasingly to refer to the 1990s. The French for "beginning of the century" -- début de siècle -- while more rarely used, has been used both for the first decade of the 1900s, and inevitably for that of the 2000s.

(pr. fan duh see'ehk"leh)

A.Word.A.Day--bildungsroman
bildungsroman (BIL-doongz-roe-mahn, -doongks-) noun
or Bildungsroman

A novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a usually youthful main character.

[German : Bildung, formation (from Middle High German bildunge, from Old High German bildunga, from bilodi, form, shape) + Roman, novel, from French, a story in the vernacular, novel.]

Wikipedia
"A Bildungsroman is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity.

"The term, originally from German, translates to "novel of education" or "novel of formation" in English. One of the foremost examples of this genre is Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and David Copperfield. Jane Eyre also contain elements of the Bildungsroman. A more contemporary example is Iain Banks novel The Crow Road."

ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science
"From the German word Bildung (meaning education, culture) and the French word roman (novel). A novel in which the author traces the maturation of the hero or heroine, from the subjectivity of childhood and early adolescence through the development of objective self-awareness (examples: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass).

"Compare with Kuntslerroman (A subset of Bildungsroman). From the German word Kunstler ("artist") and the French word roman ("novel"), a novel that traces the growth of a writer's creative genius from childhood to maturity, with particular attention to major trials and obstacles, and their influence on the development of the artist's character and work (example: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce)."

hale

hale • \HAIL\ • (adjective)
: free from defect, disease, or infirmity : sound; also : retaining exceptional health and vigor

Example sentence: "He was a rich and powerful noble, then in his sixty-second year, but hale and sturdy, a great horseman and hunter and a pious man." (Edith Wharton, "Kerfol")

Did you know?

When you need a word to describe someone or something in good health, you might pick "hale" or a synonym such as "healthy," "sound," or "robust." Of those terms, "healthy" is the most general, implying full strength and vigor or simply freedom from signs of disease. "Sound" generally emphasizes the complete absence of defects of mind or body. "Robust" implies the opposite of all that is delicate or sickly and usually suggests muscular strength as well as the ability to work or play long and hard. "Hale" applies especially to robustness in later life. The phrase "hale and hearty" is often used to describe an older person who retains the physical qualities of youth.

Aztec

The Aztec were a people who, through military alliances with other groups, dominated central and southern Mexico from the 14th to the 16th century. After the death of Moctezuma II in 1520, the divisions and internal strife among the 38 tributary provinces and the fiercely independent peoples at the fringes of the Aztec Empire, made it easy for the Spanish conquistadors -- led by Hernán Cortés -- to defeat it in 1521.
The name Aztec is derived from a mythical homeland to the north called Aztlán; the Aztec also called themselves the Mexica. Their language belongs to the Nahuatlan branch of the Uto-Aztecan family.

Editor: M.F. Lindemans
There are currently 90 articles on Aztec mythology online.
This section was last updated on January 13, 2003.

indite

A.Word.A.Day--pentimento

pentimento (pen-tuh-MEN-toh) noun, plural pentimenti
A painting or drawing that has been painted over and shows through it.
[From Italian pentimento (repentance), from pentire (to repent), from Latin paenitere (to regret).]

Today's word comes to us from Italian and literally means repentance. What in the world could a form of painting have to do with contrition? To know the answer, we may have to apply the pentimento approach itself. Digging a bit deeper, we discover the word ultimately derives from Latin paenitere (to repent or regret). Now it becomes easy to see. The painting didn't turn out as you expected it? Don't regret the loss of canvas, just paint over it! In other words, to repent, you repaint. -Anu

"Not satisfied with the passive position of the feet in Giotto's left-hand figure -- which he at first copied exactly, as can be seen in the drawing -- Michelangelo made a pentimento to replace the left foot, thus giving more stability and energy to the pose." Charles De Tolnay; Michelangelo; Princeton University Press, 1943. (Full-text on Questia)

"In photographs taken by once-secret American surveillance satellites, traces of the buried past show through the arid surface of the Middle East like pentimento. The traces are as intriguing to archaeologists as the ghostly painted-over layers on a canvas are to art historians." John Noble Wilford; Satellites Uncover Ancient Mideast Road Networks; The New York Times; Jan 28, 2003.

cockamamie

cockamamie (KOK-uh-may-mee) adjective, also cockamamy

Ridiculous; nonsensical.

[The origin of the term cockamamie is not confirmed. It's believed that it's a corruption of decalcomania, the process of transferring a design from a specially prepared paper to another surface. In the beginning, a cockamamie was a fake tattoo, moistened with water and applied to the wrist. How it took the sense of something pointless is uncertain. It's perhaps been influenced by such terms as cock-and-bull or poppycock.]

"Don't know about you, but if I had been a board member at Vivendi Universal SA, I would have pushed Jean-Marie Messier out the door long before now. It wasn't the company's 2001 loss of $11.8 billion (U.S.), the largest in French history, that did me in. Nor the cockamamie convergence idea that saw a one-time water utility become the world's second largest media and communications company ..." Jennifer Wells; Crooning Set Tone for Messier Ouster; The Toronto Star (Canada), Jul 3, 2002.

"For these reasons, the delegates were unwilling, as late as two weeks before the end of the convention, to endow the presidential office with substantive powers. Then somebody proposed the electoral college -- a complicated, cumbersome, one might say cockamamie scheme -- that overcame all the objections, and it was adopted."
Gary L. Gregg and Matthew Spalding; Patriot Sage : George Washington and the American Political Tradition; ISI Books, 1999. (Full-text on Questia)

A. Word.A.Day--chaise longue

chaise longue (shayz LONG) noun, plural chaise longues or chaises longues (shays LONG)

A reclining chair with an elongated seat for supporting legs.

[From French, literally long chair. The prevalent variant form of this term,
chaise lounge, is formed by folk etymology.]

"A pair of Air Force pilots recently locked themselves inside a closet-size metal box here for 50 hours, subsisting on cold pizza and instant noodles, amusing themselves with crossword puzzles and paperback books, and taking occasional catnaps on a fold-up chaise longue from Wal-Mart. The box was a B-2 bomber simulator." James Dao, Stealth Bomber, Once box corned, Gains Fresh Backing, The New York Times, Jun 26, 2001.

"In addition to the goldfish pond and fireplace, it sports a chaise lounge
covered in hand-painted silk, a modest waterfall and an exercise alcove."

Patricia Davis, Home Front -- Bowl, Bath and Beyond, The Wall Street Journal (New York) Jan 8, 1999.

Antipodes

American Heritage Dictionary

1)Any two places or regions that are on diametrically opposite sides of the earth.

2)(used with a sing. or pl. verb) Something that is the exact opposite or contrary of another; an antipode.

[Middle English, people with feet opposite ours, from Latin, from Greek, from pl. of antipous, with the feet opposite : anti-, anti- + pous, pod-, foot; see ped- in Indo-European Roots.]
an·tip o·de an adj.

3)A direct or diametrical opposite:

"We just sit and listen to the fullness of the quiet, as an antipode to focused busyness" (Kathryn A. Knox).

4)An·tip·o·des 1. Australia and New Zealand. Usually used informally. 2. A group of rocky islands of the southern Pacific Ocean southeast of New Zealand, to which they belong. They were discovered by British seamen in 1800 and are so named because they are diametrically opposite Greenwich, England.

Webster's Revised Dictionary

Antipodes \An*tip"o*des\, n. [L. pl., fr. Gr. ? with the feet opposite, pl. ? ?; ? against + ?, ?, foot.]

1. Those who live on the side of the globe diametrically opposite.

2. The country of those who live on the opposite side of the globe. --Latham.

3. Anything exactly opposite or contrary.

Can there be a greater contrariety unto Christ's judgment, a more perfect antipodes to all that hath hitherto been gospel? --Hammond.

rusticate

A.Word.A.Day

(RUS-ti-kayt)

verb intr. To go to or live in the country.

verb tr.
1. To send to the country.

2. Chiefly British. To suspend (a student) from a university.

3. To construct (masonry) with conspicuous, often beveled points.

[Latin rusticari, rusticat-, from rusticus, rustic.]

"Here, in a villa above the small town of Erbusco, one of Italy's greatest chefs, Gualtiero Marchesi, has rusticated himself and found happiness far from the madding crowds of Milan ...." Mariani, John, L'Albereta (Erbusco, Italy, restaurant reviews) Esquire, 1 May 1996.

"According to the Equitable Schools Book, which outlines discipline policies, Eton would expect to rusticate or expel those caught smoking." Judith Judd, Education: Hard decisions about soft drugs, Independent, 16 Jun 1994.

M-W.com

Pronunciation: 'r&s-ti-"kAt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -cat·ed; -cat·ing
Date: 1660

intransitive senses : to go into or reside in the country : follow a rustic life
transitive senses

1 chiefly British : to suspend from school or college

2 : to build or face with usually rough-surfaced masonry blocks having beveled or rebated edges producing pronounced joints <a rusticated facade>

3 a : to compel to reside in the country b : to cause to become rustic: implant rustic mannerisms in

ArtLex Art Dictionary

rusticate - In architecture to give a rustic appearance by roughening the surface and beveling the edges of stone blocks to emphasize the joints between them. A technique popular during the Renaissance, especially for stone course at the ground-floor level.

A.Word.A.Day--scrofulous

scrofulous (SKROF-yuh-luhs) adjective

1. Of or pertaining to or affected with scrofula.
2. Morally corrupt.

[From scrofula, a tuberculosis of the lymph glands, especially of the neck. The word scrofula derives from Late Latin scrofulae, plural of scrofula, diminutive of Latin scrofa (breeding sow), perhaps from the belief that breeding sows were subject to the disease. In olden times it was believed that a royal touch would cure the disease, which was also known as "king's evil".]

"I am aware that there are no sleek pacers here, only scrofulous jugheads, square-gaiters with more fur on them than the coats on the society dames on the Via Veneto back in Rome." Jeff Wells; Punting with Les Mugs of Paris; The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia); Jan 16, 1999.

"This crushing realization comes by way of a splendid roster of minor English characters, created by Mount for our amusement and Gus's torment. The scrofulous, self-pitying travel agent and racing-car enthusiast ..." Christopher Hitchens; Fairness; The Atlantic Monthly (Boston); Jul/Aug 2001.

"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am." These candid words of Samuel Johnson, lexicographer extraordinaire, provide a perceptive observation on the human condition. A language is a mirror of its people. As a disinterested record of the language, a dictionary serves as an accurate window to the culture. It's not surprising that there are more words to describe people who fall on the wrong side than on the other. In this week's AWAD we'll look at five such words. -Anu

A.Word.A.Day--ugsome

ugsome (UG-suhm) adjective

Dreadful, loathsome.

[From Middle English, from uggen, from Old Norse ugga (to fear). As in many typical stories where one child in a family becomes well-known while the other remains obscure, "ugly" and "ugsome" are two words derived from the same root -- one is an everyday word while the other remains unusual.]

"The grandmother is at times ugsome ..." John Moore; 3 Women, 3 Generations, Clever Word Play; Denver Post; Mar 7, 2002.
This week's theme: words to describe people.

X-Bonus

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: Humility is endless. -T.S Eliot, poet (1888-1965)

A.Word.A.Day--gormless

gormless (GORM-lis) adjective, also gaumless \ Dull or stupid. [From English dialectal gaum (attention or understanding), from Middle English gome, from Old Norse gaumr.]

"For my parents, though, it was compulsory viewing. They would sit on the settee making appreciative or derogatory noises about one or another contestant and bitterly denouncing the judges when Miss England failed to get a placing - even if Miss England was a gormless, whey-faced hag, which quite often she was." Rod Liddle; The Ugly Side of Miss World; The Guardian (London); Nov 26, 2002.

"As the movie's gormless hero, Spacey inverts his usual glib persona. But there's something mannered about his minimalism. He creates a character so deliberately vacant and slow-witted that, behind the concave performance, the armature of intelligence shows through." Brian D Johnson; Bumping Into Neverland; Maclean's (Toronto, Canada); Dec 31, 2001/Jan 7, 2002.

This week's theme: words to describe people.

X-Bonus

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill. -Francois de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680)

A.Word.A.Day--scalawag

scalawag (SKAL-uh-wag) noun, also scallywag or scallawag

1. A rascal.

2. In US history, a white Southerner who acted in support of the Reconstruction after the Civil War.
[Of unknown origin.]

"But too often, critics say, the law is part of the problem. Past and present police officers have been linked to kidnappings. When Mr. Marohombsar was killed, a local police officer was among those found in his hideout. 'There are scalawags in the police who are involved in kidnapping,' said Col. Alan Purisima, Pacer's chief." Wayne Arnold and Carlos H. Conde; In Manila, Kidnapping as a Business Expense; The New York Times; Jan 28, 2003.

"Directors Eric Bergeron and Don Paul have been meticulous in re-creating the feel of the Road movies and enhancing them with the boundless magic of animation. Their scalawags are a pair of con artists called Tulio (Kevin Kline) and Miguel (Kenneth Branagh)." Louis B. Hobson; El Dorado is a Gem; The Calgary Sun (Canada); Mar 31, 2000.

This week's theme: words to describe people.

X-Bonus

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

A.Word.A.Day--sciolist

sciolist (SAI-uh-list) noun

One who engages in pretentious display of superficial knowledge.

[From Late Latin sciolus (smatterer), diminutive of Latin scius (knowing), from scire (to know). Another example of the similar kind of word formation is the name of the bird oriole which is derived from the diminutive form of Latin aureus (golden).]

"Never was so brilliant a lecture-room as his evening banqueting-hall; highly connected students from Rome mixed with the sharp-witted provincial of Greece or Asia Minor; and the flippant sciolist, and the nondescript visitor, half philosopher, half tramp, met with a reception, courteous always, but suitable to his deserts." John Henry Newman; The Idea Of A University, University Life At Athens; 1854.
"On the other hand, judged strictly by the standard of his own time, (Francis) Bacon's ignorance of the progress which science had up to that time made is only to be equalled by his insolence toward men in comparison with whom he was the merest sciolist." Thomas H. Huxley; Harvey Discovers The Circulation Of The Blood; History of the World.

This week's theme: words to describe people.

X-Bonus

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)